This holiday season, Sears and Kmart are offering free layaway and Shop Your Way loyalty savings programs in a bid to connect with financially strapped shoppers. Company president Ron Boire sat down with DailyFinance.

At Kmart stores across the country, Santa seems to be getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers' layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn't afford, especially toys and children's clothes set aside by impoverished parents.